Jack respectfully popped into Gifford’s office to update him, before the rest of the team. But Gifford was not in the mood for pleasantries. ‘I’ve been on to DCI Ridley,’ Gifford said as if this would knock Jack off-balance. Jack reckoned Gifford must have complained about Jack double-checking all of his hard work, but he knew Ridley would have politely but firmly put him straight. ‘You better not be dragging your feet now you’ve started this messy little ball rolling,’ Gifford continued. ‘Remember what I said about getting answers before the complaints start hitting the DCI’s desk.’

‘Elli – Mrs Fullworth won’t be complaining, sir. I can assure you of that.’ Jack left it at that and headed for his team. Jack had ‘accidently’ used Mrs Fullworth’s first name, so that Gifford knew the kind of relationship Jack had been able to establish in just one ten-minute visit.

In the squad room, Jack asked each officer in turn to introduce themselves, and then share any relevant discoveries. As this began, Jack sat his desk, got out a brand new pair of brown boots, just like Oaks’s, and swapped them for the muddy shoes he was currently wearing. He then binned the shoes.

His team were brimming with a new enthusiasm, stemming from a couple of pieces of additional information that had been uncovered. As people spoke, Oaks wrote everything on the evidence board: four more burglaries had now been unofficially reported, with no one wanting their house to be treated like a crime scene at this late stage. They’d moved on and would not be dragged back. But the dates, times, methods of entry and items taken were all new and potentially important information.

Most re-interviewed burglary victims had put their ordeals behind them, upped their security, claimed on their insurance and got on with their lives. Although this made little sense to Jack, he understood that it was all relative – losing £50,000 of insured property here would be like him having his bike nicked.

Within the hour, the whiteboard was full and a second had been borrowed from another department. They now had a comprehensive list of all properties that owned updated security systems, new CCTV, guard dogs and, in some cases, security guards.

Oaks walked backwards away from the evidence boards, until he was in his newly adopted position right by Jack’s side. Jack immediately noticed that he was now a good half inch taller in his new boots, which he liked the feel of. That morning, Oaks had been a fraction taller than him; now they were the same height. Jack was average, just shy of 5’10”, but in this job, he knew he was considered to be on the short side.

They still had no prints, no damage for the sake of it and no alarm systems tripped. What they did have was one dead dog and a sick old man who was in bed during his break-in.